ROME — The Vatican secretary of state is trying to defuse Pope Francis’ latest diplomatic kerfuffle, insisting in media interviews that a primary condition for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine is an end to Russia’s aggression and that any peace must be a “just peace.” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s chief diplomat, made … Read more
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said Pope Francis’s call for talks with Moscow to end the war in Ukraine was a request to Kyiv’s Western allies to abandon their ambition to defeat Russia and to recognise the West’s mistake in the Ukraine war, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported. Pope Francis has said that Ukraine should have … Read more
ROME — Friar Paolo Benanti wears the plain brown robes of his medieval Franciscan order as he pursues one of the most pressing issues in contemporary times: how to govern artificial intelligence so that it enriches — and doesn’t exploit — people’s lives. Benanti is the Vatican’s go-to person on the technology and he has … Read more
December 24, 2023 at 5:54 p.m. EST The Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, as he arrives at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem West Bank, on, Sunday, Dec. 24. (Heidi Levine/for The Washington Post)Comment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave BETHLEHEM, West Bank — On Christmas … Read more
ROME — Pope Francis’ green light for Catholic priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples is in many ways a recognition of what has been happening in some European parishes for years. But his decision to officially spell out his approval could send a message of tolerance to places where gay rights are far more … Read more
A response letter to five conservative cardinals who were asking Pope Francis to clarify whether blessings of same-sex unions are permitted went public on Monday, signaling a slight shift in the Catholic Church’s previous stance on LGBTQ+ unions. “We cannot be judges who only deny, push back and exclude,” Pope Francis wrote in a July … Read more
Pope Francis’ Ukraine peace envoy, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, is heading to China on the fourth leg of a mission to return Ukrainian youngsters taken to Russia ByThe Related Press September 12, 2023, 12:03 PM FILE – Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, head of the CEI (Italian Convention of Bishops), welcomes parishioners after celebrating Mass on the Cathedral … Read more
ROME — Pope Francis’ peace envoy for Ukraine, a veteran of the Catholic Church’s conflict-mediation efforts, blasted conflict as a “pandemic” on Tuesday and stated all Christians are referred to as to be peacemakers. In his first public feedback since being named Ukraine envoy, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi referred to as for the creation of a … Read more